London Book Fair ‘positive’ for Christian publishers

Written by Eric Tiansay

Thursday, 23 April 2009 02:57 PM America/New_York

More than 20 U.S. Christian publishers took part in the London Book Fair this week. The publishers--which included Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House Publishers and Zondervan--were part of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's (ECPA) cooperative exhibit, also known as the Christian Collective during the two-day fair, which was held at the Earl's Court & Olympia Centre in the Kensington borough of London.

Although attendance figures were not yet available for the event--which ended yesterday--participating publishers had expressed "positive" sentiments and reported noticing emerging markets for Christian literature in China, Eastern Europe and Latin America, according to ECPA's Information and Education Director Michael Covington.

"As for which categories of books are performing well in these international markets, fiction appears to be the clear and away winner," Covington said.

Digital publishing was a key topic of conversation during the fair, which included a digital conference hosted by Michael Healy of the Book Industry Study Group and participation from company representatives from Sony and Lexcycle--which created the Stanza book reader application for the iPhone. The digital conference also featured a presentation from Kelly Gallagher, vice president publishing services for R.R. Bowker.

Further discussing the growth of digital media, Gallagher will be a featured presenter at ECPA's upcoming Executive Leadership Summit, to be held at the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., April 26-28. Other presenters will include Dan Balow, publisher of Oasis Audio, and Tim Close, senior vice president of Symtio, Zondervan's digital book program.